


The Stars & The Moon

by justanoutlaw



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Cancer, Canon Dialogue, Character Death, Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Episode: s01e22 A Land Without Magic, Episode: s02e01 Broken, F/M, Heavy Angst, I love Snow so much, I'm Sorry, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Loosely based on the Lifetime movie Five, My revenge to Lois' fic, Parent Prince Charming | David Nolan, Parent Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, Pinocchio | August Booth & Emma Swan Friendship, Reunions, Which stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Young Emma Swan, Young Pinocchio | August Booth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 20:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16272173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanoutlaw/pseuds/justanoutlaw
Summary: Snow goes through the wardrobe while still pregnant with Emma, but never makes it to Storybrooke.





	The Stars & The Moon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [loisselina (LoisSelina)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoisSelina/gifts).



> LoisSelina wrote a heartbreaking but beautiful fic where both Emma and David died the night the curse was set...this is my revenge. As tags state, major character death ahead. I love Snow, just an interesting take in my mind. Loosely based on the Lifetime movie, Five, which starred Ginny Goodwin. There's also a gifset with a similar plot to this that I saw forever ago, but I couldn't find it.

****

**_What do I do with all I need to say_ **  
**_So much I wanna tell you everday_ **  
**_Oh it breaks my heart,_ **  
**_I cry these tears in the dark_ **  
**_I write these letters to you,_ **  
**_But they get lost in the blue,_ **  
**_'Cause there's no address in the stars.-Caitlin & Will_ **

 

The wardrobe was completed early and Snow White kissed her husband for the last time. She told herself she’d see him again in 28 years, maybe sooner if she could find wherever the curse took them.

 

“I love you,” she whispered.

“And I love you.” David caressed her stomach. “Take care of our girl.”

“Always.”

“I’ll see you again.”

 

Snow climbed into the wardrobe and David shut the door, separating the two of them once more. When she arrived in the strange new land called Boston, she found Pinocchio by her side and for a moment, she wanted to cry. They didn’t have to be apart, they could’ve raised Emma together.

 

Damn that fairy.

 

She didn’t have much time, but she decided quickly what had to be done. She’d take care of him, they’d be a family, no matter how different things were supposed to be. They found names while sitting in the shelter. August was on an old calendar someone had left behind and Mary Margaret was listed as one of the benefactors. August suggested that they choose the last name “Swan”. His father read him a story about a duckling that wanted to become a swan and he believed in himself enough, that it came true. Snow knew the story went differently, but she liked that interoperation. Swan it would be.

 

A woman by the name of Esther took pity on her, seeing she was heavily pregnant and with one child already, struggling to get by. She offered Snow a job as a housekeeper as soon as her child was born. Part of her wages was a small shack behind the main house, only one room, but it’d have to do.

 

2 weeks later, Snow gave birth to a precious baby girl. She cradled her in her arms, pressing tiny kisses to her face. She was wrapped in the blanket that Granny had sent along with them, with her name on the side of it.

 

“Emma,” Snow whispered. “Emma Ruth Swan. It’s just you, me and Auggie for now. But I promise, one day I will take you to meet your daddy. Oh, he is going to love you. Yes he is, my sweet girl.”

 

Time went by faster than Snow expected. Emma learned to walk in the main parlor of Esther’s home. Little by little, Snow learned more about her boss. She was a lonely old woman who had also lost her husband. Her children lived on the opposite side of the country and she said she didn’t feel any ounce of happiness until she met Snow and her children. By Emma’s first birthday, she had invited them to move into the main house. Snow became more than just a housekeeper, but a friend.

 

A part of her wondered if maybe fate had brought them together for a reason. They were a little family. Esther was the closest thing she had to a mom in years.

 

Until Emma was 4 and August was 11. Esther had a stroke and required more care. Two months later, she was gone. Much to Snow’s surprise, she had left the house and money to her, saying she was her family. She used the money to finish the degree she had started and got a job teaching. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t not think of her husband. She wondered where he was, if somehow he knew something was missing.

 

Snow told Emma stories of her father, a shepherd turned prince who loved her to bits and couldn’t wait to meet her someday. Emma would constantly ask when that day was and Snow would always respond the same: “Soon, baby girl. Soon.”

 

Two days after Emma turned 8, Snow found a lump when she was doing her routine check. She never knew about cancer until she came to the strange new land. Esther had been surprised at her naiveite, but she had simply explained that she came from a place with different technology. Her friend had guessed she was once Amish and though Snow hadn’t known what that was, she just went with it. She supposed that cancer had existed in the Enchanted Forest, but there was no way of detection.

 

She kept it a secret as long as she could. She went through all the options and eventually agreed on a mastectomy. August picked up the slack around the house and she felt so guilty, he was growing up much quicker than he should and she vowed to herself that she would try harder to find wherever everyone had ended up as soon as she was better.

 

Until she never got better.

 

After the double mastectomy, she thought she was in the clear, but two years later she got wind that it had spread. There was nothing the doctors could do. They gave her a time table and told her to get her affairs in order.

 

She was never going to be reunited with her husband. August and Emma were losing their mother, just as she had.

 

Snow fought with all she had. She insisted on going to work until she couldn’t. Even after that, she drove until she was too weak. She didn’t want to rely on her son too much until she totally had to, but eventually, she ended up completely bedridden. August tried to keep Emma out so she could get her rest, but one day, her little girl snuck in. She was all of 10 years old and looked like a perfect mix of her parents. She had her mother’s eyes and chin along with her thick hair, but the coloring of it and her smile were all David.

 

“Hey, angel face,” she said, weakly. “What are you up to?”

Emma shrugged. “I’m bored. Auggie said I should play…but I miss you.”

“I miss you too, baby.” She noticed a piece of paper in Emma’s hands. “What do you have there?”

“I made you a picture.”

“Let me see.”

 

Snow pulled back some of the covers and Emma crawled up into the bed, cuddling into her mother’s side.

 

“There’s my girl,” she whispered. She saw Emma had drew the moon and a figure that resembled her on there. “Is that me on the moon?”

Emma nodded. “Uh huh.”

“Why’d I go to the moon?”

“Because no one gets sick there.”

Snow’s breath caught and the tears welled up in her eyes. She pulled Emma closer to her and kissed her temple. “Then that’s where I’m going.”

 

She did her best to hide her tears, resting her chin atop her daughter’s head. As she rubbed Emma’s back, she caught sight of her emerald ring. Slowly, she removed it and sat Emma up a bit.

 

“Your daddy gave this to me,” she explained. “It was once your Grandma Ruth’s. She told him that true love will always follow it and she was right. It lead him to me and then it guided me to August.” She stroked Emma’s cheek. “I was wearing it the day I had you. And now you’re going to take it, and it’s gonna lead you to your daddy.”

“Are you coming with us, Mommy?”

“I’m gonna fight with all I can to do that. But just in case, I want you to have it.” She reached over onto her nightstand and grabbed her jewelry box. Inside was a silver chain that Esther had gifted her one Mother’s Day. She slid the ring over the chain and clasped it around Emma’s neck. “I love you, Emma. More than all the stars in the sky.”

“And I love you more than all the planets,”  Emma whispered.

 

Snow had time to say goodbye to her son and apologize for leaving him with such a heavy burden. She saw what Regina having to raise her did to her and she didn’t want that for him, but August promised he’d take care of his sister. He’d never resent her. Snow said that she loved him and even though they never shared blood, he would always be her little boy. She’d never resent having taken care of him.

 

Having hope that they would find the rest of their family, Snow White took her final breaths that very night.

* * *

 

Growing up without a father had always left Emma feeling as though she had a missing piece. She had a happy childhood with the family her mother had created, but there would always be that nagging part of her that reminded her that she didn’t have a dad like a lot of the kids in her class.

 

Things didn’t get much better after she lost her mom.

 

August tried, he really did, but he wasn’t even 18 himself. He ended up dropping out of high school to work full time. Snow had left money behind, but with all her medical bills, they were struggling. He made the choice to sell the home they had grown up in, so he’d be able to keep food on the table. Emma clearly hated him for it, she was too young to understand such concepts.

 

Things only got worse as she got older. She pulled away and rebelled. She dated losers that were beneath her and barely paid attention in class, when she went that was. On her 15th birthday, she got so drunk, she ended up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. August was sure child services would take her, but they never came. He thought maybe it would be a wakeup call, but things only got worse.

 

She stopped going to high school at 16 and ran away a year later. August searched everywhere for her, going up and down the Eastern coast, but she was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t for another 14 months that he’d get a letter postmarked from Phoenix, with Emma explaining that she was serving time for theft. Her and her boyfriend at the time had been caught trying to sell watches he stole. She was lucky that he got more time than her, but she wanted to come home, if August would have her.

 

He borrowed some money from his friend and went down to Arizona, pulling his baby sister into his arms. They were all each other had and he wasn’t going to let her go again.

* * *

 

Emma cleaned up her life, one step at a time. She stopped drinking in prison and started going to A.A meetings. She went to night classes and eventually graduated from college. When she was 25, she got a job as a bail bondsperson. August knew that their mother would be proud.

 

On her 28th birthday, there was a knock at their door. August stood behind Emma as she opened it. A young boy stood in the doorway, brown hair and green eyes, a red and grey scarf swung around his neck.

 

“Uh, can I help you?” Emma asked.

“Are you Emma Swan?” The kid asked.

“Yeah. Who are you?”

“My name’s Henry.” He smiled widely. “I’m your son.”

 

August was in shock and could barely hear Emma talk to Henry. Since when did she have a kid? How did she have a kid? Where had he been all this time?

“How old are you?” August cut in, looking down at Henry.

“10.”

August met Emma’s guilty eyes. “When you were…”

She quickly cut him off. “Yeah, we can talk about it later.”

 

It didn’t take long for Henry to show him their storybook and sure enough, it had all the stories that August had either lived, seen happen or had been told by his mother. Emma had grown up hearing it, but after awhile had honestly believed it was her mom and brother’s way of coping with her deadbeat dad. Looking through the book and seeing how alike the stories were, she realized that Snow and August had been telling the truth. Her eyes lingered on the page where Prince Charming put Snow White through the wardrobe.

 

_“I’ll see you again.”_

 

A lump grew in her throat. How was she supposed to tell her father, her mother’s husband…that they were never reuniting?

 

Henry stayed in the living room while August and Emma packed up their things.

 

“You never told me you had a kid,” August whispered.

“I knew you’d talk me out of giving him up.”

“I could’ve helped you, Emma.”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t even 18 yet, I was in jail. He deserved more than this and that’s what I gave him.”

“Apparently he’s with the Evil Queen.”

“You know, he doesn’t appear to be malnourished or beaten, so I’d say he’s fine. Who knows? Maybe she’s changed.”

“Emma.”

“Mom always said that there was good in her. She just buried it under so much hate.”

 

Before her brother could say anything else, Emma threw her blanket into her bag and zipped it up. Her hand went to the chain around her neck, which had the swan keychain that Neal had given her along with the ring from her mother. It was the one thing she never let go of, no matter what. She’d pawn everything else she owned, she’d go hungry, if it meant she kept the one thing that connected her to the parents she had lost.

 

The drive to Storybrooke was filled with August and Henry talking mostly, Emma was afraid to get attached. He wasn’t hers, he was Regina’s. That was that. No matter what she might have done to their family, Emma could tell from the look on her face that she really loved him.

 

It didn’t mean she was leaving Storybrooke, she couldn’t. According to August, she was the savior. She’d find a way to break the curse, if only she could find her father. She had descriptions and the book, but no matter where she went, it was like he didn’t exist. She didn’t want Regina to paint her as a crazy and exile her from town, so she couldn’t even go to her. She kept her space from Henry, knowing she couldn’t get involved but occasionally Regina would allow them to hang out. It seemed that the less threatening she appeared, the more likely Regina was to not be suspicious.

 

Or so Emma thought.

 

She accepted a seemingly innocent apple turnover from the mayor and to prove his point that the curse was real, Henry ate it. He fell into a sleeping curse and Emma had to race to make sure that she could break it. Regina realized how far she had gone to keep her curse and found out the truth about Snow. She had wanted her dead for so many years, but realizing that she was truly gone and that her daughter had grown up similar to her…it was enough to make her want to do one last good thing for her.

 

True love’s kiss between Emma and Henry broke the curse completely. The two of them and Regina headed out of the hospital, desperate to find August and her father. Regina explained that she had put David away after Emma came to town, in order to prevent the curse from breaking but now he was a free man.

 

“Emma.” She heard her brother’s voice and turned around, finding him beside a tall man with blonde hair, blue eyes and a smile that she had seen in the mirror.

 

_“Mommy?” Emma asked one night as her mother tucked her into bed. “What did my daddy look like?”_

_Snow looked wistful as she pushed a strand of hair behind Emma’s ear. “He was so handsome. Blonde hair like you, but blue eyes. And his smile? I see it every time you do.”_

 

“David,” August said, softly. “This is your daughter.”

 

Emma’s eyes were wide as she watched him walk closer. The tears were forming in his eyes and he stared at her, as if he were looking at a ghost.

 

“Look at you,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “You’re so beautiful.”

 

She wasn’t sure what to say, so she just continued to stare. Before she knew it, he had wrapped her up in a hug and was cradling the back of her head. She slowly wrapped her arms around him, keeping her face nestled into his shoulder.

 

_“He gave the best hugs,” Snow had said, fondly. “They make you feel like you’re the most important person in the room.”_

 

Nothing her mom had said about her dad was a lie. She didn’t want to let go, not ever.

 

“Grandpa?” Henry asked.

David pulled away, laughing a bit despite his tears. He had gotten to know Henry under the curse before Regina locked him up. “I guess so, kid.” He looked over at Regina herself, who was biting her lip. “You…”

Emma held up her hand. “She helped me break this. She…she’s a lot of things, but first and foremost, she’s Henry’s mother.”

 

She could see her father was doubtful, but he clearly didn’t want to get into an argument within the first five minutes of meeting her. He looked around and Emma felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, knowing just what he was searching for.

 

“Where’s your mom? Is she back at your place?”

Emma gnawed on her lower lip. “She…she’s not here.”

David’s face fell. “What? She went through the wardrobe when she was pregnant with you, you were supposed to be together.”

“We were.” Tears filled Emma’s eyes. “For 10 years, we were together. We had a great life…but…she passed away.”

David did a double take and then tilted his head. “No.”

“David…”

“No. She’s fine. She…she would only be 56 right now.”

“It was cancer,” August spoke up. “She fought with all she had…but…she lost.”

 

David’s lips trembled and a fresh batch of tears started up. Emma could tell his knees were going weak and she grabbed hold of his arm to hold him upright. He looked at her as though he was broken.

 

“No,” he choked out. A few tears fell down his face. “This can’t be happening.”

 

It was Emma’s turn to pull him into her arms, as both of them broke down into tears.

 

“I’m sorry, Dad,” she whispered.


End file.
